french battleship strasbourg world of warships

The design had to respect the 1930 London Naval Treaty, which limited the French to two 23,333-ton ships until 1936. The German Deutschland-class cruisers became the new focus for French naval architects in 1929. Visually, it bore a profile strikingly similar to the final Dunkerque. These attempts were followed by an intermediate design for a 23,690-ton protected cruiser in 1929 it was armed with 305 mm (12.0 in) guns, armoured against 203 mm (8.0 in) guns, and had a speed of 29 kn (54 km/h 33 mph). A 17,500-ton cruiser, which could have handled the Trentos, was inadequate against the old Italian battleships, however, and the 37,000-ton battlecruiser concepts were prohibitively expensive and would jeopardize further naval limitation talks. Initially, the French sought a reply to the Italian Trento-class cruisers of 1925, but all proposals were rejected. The French Navy's design staff spent the decade following the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty attempting to produce a satisfactory design to fill 70,000 tons as allowed by the treaty. While they never encountered the German pocket battleships they were designed to counter, they suffered the British attack of Mers-el-Kebir, and stayed under the Vichy authorities control until they were scuttled at Toulon in November 1942. Together they formed the 1ère Division de Ligne ('1st Division of the Line'), and saw service during the early years of the Second World War. Two ships, Dunkerque and Strasbourg, were completed. Given their characteristics, they were alternatively classified as fast battleships, small battleships,battlecruisers,and even as 'ships of the line' (Fr.

When they were commissioned, only the last existing battlecruisers of the British Royal Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy were their equals. They were smaller, with a 26,500- to 27,300-ton standard displacement and a smaller main artillery caliber, than the battleships authorized by the Washington Naval Treaty, but their speed was 7 knots higher than all the battleships built from 1920 to 1937. Their main armament was two quadruple 330 mm turrets forward, with a 225 mm (8.9 in) thick armored belt. The Dunkerques were designed to counter the German Deutschland class pocket battleships. The Dunkerque class battleship was a type of warship constructed for the French Navy in the 1930s.

French battleship strasbourg world of warships